The government has awarded \u00a32.3m in compensation to the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) after roadworks affecting its premier garden in Wisley caused a \u201cthree-year traffic jam\u201d.<\/p>\n
The horticulture charity estimated it lost \u00a313m due to disruption caused by the upgrade to the A3 and M25, with visits to the garden each year cut by 350,000. A campaign to reimburse the charity was led by the gardener and TV presenter Alan Titchmarsh<\/a>.<\/p>\n Clare Matterson, the RHS director general, said: \u201cI think it\u2019s fair to say that we had three years of a traffic jam outside what is our major garden.\u201d<\/p>\n Calling the compensation process \u201cexhausting\u201d, she added: \u201cI would have loved more. I would have pushed for more. It is what it is, and on we go. I\u2019m grateful that we got something.\u201d<\/p>\n Matterson said the government had ignored gardening despite the fact it has proven health benefits, reducing pressure on the NHS, while the surface area of UK gardens<\/a> is three times greater than all of the country\u2019s national nature reserves combined.<\/p>\n However, she said she had hope for the future, not least because Andy Burnham was a frequent visitor to RHS Garden Bridgewater before he became prime minister.<\/p>\n RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey, which saw visits drop by 350,000 during three years of roadworks. Photograph: Jubilee Images\/Alamy<\/p>\n \u201cWe know he loves Bridgewater. He talked to me about going with his family, but particularly with his father to Bridgewater, and what an important place it was,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cAndy Burnham talks about pride in place and local people\u2019s empowerment \u2026 So hopefully, Andy will think about gardening.\u201d<\/p>\n The RHS runs Chelsea flower show, which came under scrutiny this year as it lost one of its biggest funders<\/a>, and critics said it had gone \u201cwoke\u201d<\/a> with its focus on charities and eco-friendly gardens.<\/p>\n Speaking to the Guardian, Matterson issued a full-throated defence of the show for the first time. \u201cChelsea is our saviour,\u201d she said. \u201cTickets sold out 10 days before we even opened this year. Chelsea is an extraordinary beast, and it\u2019s become a very important sort of national moment for the country as well. It\u2019s still watched by millions of people on the television every year.\u201d<\/p>\n She added that Chelsea is \u201cthe Olympics of the horticultural world\u201d and that it is \u201cdoing brilliantly\u201d as the charity\u2019s biggest fundraiser. \u201cPeople, I guess, complain about anything popular, don\u2019t they,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In the coming year, the RHS will be driving a massive push towards community gardening, getting local authorities to give pieces of unused land to residents who want to use them to grow vegetables and flowers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe did a survey and found about two\u2013and-a -half \u2013 million people saying they are actively engaged in [community gardening], but something like 13 million said they would like to be, which is extraordinary,\u201d Matterson said. \u201cAccess to land is one of the main barriers.\u201d<\/p>\n Clare Matterson at home in Suffolk with her dog, Minke, and a homegrown white pumpkin. Photograph: Joshua Bright\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Matterson is personally involved in a community garden near her home in Suffolk. \u201cWhat I love about that is that not everybody that comes loves the physical act of gardening,\u201d she said. \u201cSome like making things, and so they\u2019ll be making bird boxes. Some people just want to come and chat.\u201d<\/p>\n She hopes Burnham\u2019s push towards pride in local places will start a community gardening revolution. \u201cCommunity gardening must be a big thing for this country,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s about health, wellbeing and the opportunity for localities to make a big difference for their communities. If we can take that seriously, it\u2019s not a big investment across the country, but I think the benefits that flow out from it are absolutely enormous.\u201d<\/p>\n Another project she is helming aims to get gardens into NHS hospitals to provide peace and respite for patients, their families and staff.<\/p>\n \u201cThe hospitals that have got those gardens are seeing higher retention rates among their staff, better morale and wellbeing,\u201d she said. \u201cFor someone visiting a relative who\u2019s really unwell, being able to go and sit in the garden makes a huge difference.\u201d<\/p>\n With gardening societies such as the RHS having a historical reputation as elitist, Matterson says she is trying to make the RHS as inclusive as possible. The charity is hosting an urban show in Bristol next year, focused on pot plants, small spaces and balcony gardens.<\/p>\n \u201cWho is gardening for in the 21st century?\u201d she asked. \u201cIs it for a small elite band of people, or is it for everybody? That was the conversation we had across the organisation. Our strategy now is: how do we get horticulture to as many people as possible?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The government has awarded \u00a32.3m in compensation to the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) after roadworks affecting its premier…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-791844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}